{"id":404492,"date":"2026-09-19T10:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T10:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/404492\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T10:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T10:32:13","slug":"no-5-miami-tops-wake-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/404492\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 5 Miami tops Wake Forest –"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uncategorized<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

AP Photo
\nMiami quarterback Darian Mensah (10) looks to pass the ball against Wake Forest during the first half Friday in Winston-Salem, N.C.<\/p>\n

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Darian Mensah connected on his first 24 passes on the way to setting Atlantic Coast Conference records for consecutive completions, and fifth-ranked Miami\u2019s defense came up with four straight fourth-quarter stops to beat Wake Forest 33-20 on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Mensah completed 30 of 34 passes for 220 yards and three touchdowns, including a 9-yarder to Joshua Moore on the game\u2019s first possession and a perfect-execution throw back to the left side on Elija Lofton\u2019s 21-yard score.<\/p>\n

Menah added a short TD throw to star sophomore receiver Malachi Toney as Miami (3-0, 2-0) took a 31-7 lead midway through the third quarter, only to see its prolific offense grind to an abrupt halt with four straight three-and-outs while seeing Toney among multiple players to get banged up.<\/p>\n

That ultimately gave the Hurricanes\u2019 defense its chance to step up as Wake Forest tried to rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey certainly closed out the game,\u201d Miami coach Mario Cristobal said.<\/p>\n

Gio Lopez threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns for the Demon Deacons (2-1, 0-1), including a perfect throw to the back right corner of the end zone for Carlos Hernandez on a 17-yard strike that pulled Wake Forest to 31-20 with 14:56 left.<\/p>\n

But from there, Miami pressured Lopez in the end zone to draw a holding penalty for a safety. Then, after Wake Forest drove all the way to the 13, the Hurricanes again pressured Lopez into an inaccurate throw on fourth down in the end zone.<\/p>\n

Miami freshman JJ Dunnigan followed by rushing around the end to harass Lopez into another hurried and off-target throw on fourth down with 5:24 left. Then Ethan O\u2019Connor picked off Lopez\u2019s pass at the 2:24 mark in the red zone, effectively ending this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some opportunities to really get back in that game in the foruth quarter, just could never quite get over the hump,\u201d Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert said.<\/p>\n

The takeaway<\/p>\n

Miami: The Hurricanes had been nothing short of dominant while leading the country in total offense (702.5) and ranking second in the Bowl Subdivision ranks in scoring (61.0), which had been part of their jump. The defense\u2019s play late offered a positive in a relatively close game compared to a pair of blowouts to open the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling, but we\u2019re all one team,\u201d said defensive lineman Marquise Lightfoot, who had a third-quarter sack of Lopez. \u201cSo they\u2019ve got our back when we need them, and we\u2019ve got their back when they need us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons were chasing a rare win against the nation\u2019s elite. They entered Friday with a 1-68 mark against teams in the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll, with the only win coming against No. 4 Tennessee in 1946. One culprit in this setback: 13 penalties for 137 yards, including two that negated big fourth-quarter punt returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to learn from this and get better,\u201d Dickert said. \u201cOur execution wasn\u2019t at a high enough level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mensah\u2019s marks<\/p>\n

Mensah ultimately completed 35 straight passes going back to last week against Florida A&M, breaking the ACC mark of 30 consecutive completions over multiple games set by North Carolina\u2019s Mitch Trubisky in September 2016. His 24-for-24 start broke the ACC single-game record of 18, held by three players.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Miami: Hosts Central Michigan next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Wake Forest: At No. 23 Louisville next Saturday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here. Visit the Top 25 here and see AP\u2019s full college football coverage here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uncategorized AP Photo Miami quarterback Darian Mensah (10) looks to pass the ball against Wake Forest during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-404492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}